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Tularosa looks to put on the glass slipper

Tularosa's Joe Ray Chavez runs the ball up the field at practice on Tuesday. (John Bear/Daily News)

Historically teams that are the highest seed do not win advance in the playoffs. For Tularosa, nonetheless, they are trying to find their slipper size.

The playoffs in 2A are officially here. For Tularosa, however, their postseason started three weeks ago against Lordsburg. Now Tularosa and 2A are playing in the same playoffs.

After playing the waiting game last week, the Wildcats enter the postseason as the No. 12 seed in the playoffs.

They will not have a postseason home game because they are the last team in the playoffs.

To head coach Bryan Jones, however, it doesn't matter how a team gets in the playoffs, but as long as they are in the playoffs because according to Jones "The new season starts now".

Once the playoffs start, anything can happen, including the beloved Cinderella runs.

"All I've been telling is we are in the playoffs, and anything can happen. I've been bringing up other sports stories in the past," Jones said. "'88 Olympic ice hockey team when nobody gave them a chance to win gold against the Russians and they got it done. The Red Sox, down 0-3 going back to New York and beat the Yankees and won the World Series."

Tularosa will take on Estancia, the No. 5 seed in the playoffs. The Bears are 6-4 and played in the same district as Santa Rosa who went undefeated and Clayton, who has one loss this year (against Santa Rosa). There other two losses came against the No. 2 seed Hatch Valley and Centennial, the No. 5 seed in the 4A playoffs. The Bears run an old school smash-mouth type of football. Lots of running. Jones mentions the Bears run some Wing-T and veer along with some option.

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Basically, any running play known to mankind will be used. With all of the running plays, their play-action passing will be used. The only question is whether or not the Wildcat defense will be ready for it.

The Bears offense has scored 40 or more points five times this year. They have also passed the 50-point mark three times. Their offense however, feasted on teams that struggled on defense this year. They scored 54 against a winless Socorro and 47 against 1-9 Tucumcari.

The Bears run a 5-2 with five defensive linemen up front. Jones mentions this defense is very aggressive. Their linebackers or corners will blitz a lot. That type of defensive philosophy has its risks rewards.

If the blitz works out it can result in a loss. If it fails or gets picked up by a blocker, then their defense will get burned.

Their defense can be stingy. They have allowed 10 points or fewer four times this year, yet against Centennial they allowed 55 points. Against the No. 1 team Santa Rosa, they were shutout but against Clayton they lost 19-12.

Last week the Wildcats had to play the waiting game, which Jones said was very tough for his team. Even though the 'Cats are a 12 seed they got a lot of players who have played postseason football as every class on the roster has gone to at least one postseason game. It will also be the first time since 2006 the 'Cats will have a season below .500. But it is the playoffs and everybody gets a new chance at redemption. The Tularosa football players are embracing it as they have been there before. In years past, they were always a top seed. Now they are a high seed. For Tularosa it is "been there done that", now they just have put on a glass slipper.

"The other thing we have working in our favor too if it pans for us or not is we've been in this situation for the last five years," Jones said, "That is nothing new for us and the last four years, we've played in the state championship three times so win or home games is nothing new for us."

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